Table tennis champion Nikolaus McClellan wiped his brow as he exultantly described his victory over more than 30 competitors at The Grid Lab on Tuesday and the resulting throbbing in his arm after playing four games.
But the tournament did not involve any tables or paddles, and it did not involve any ping-pong balls either.
The only equipment were Nintendo Wii remotes that allowed competitors to simulate real table tennis techniques while trying out Rockstar Games' debut table tennis game for the Wii and Xbox 360.
Despite a lack of traditional equipment, some gamers and exercise professionals consider interactive sports video games a form of alternate exercise.
While many avid Wii Sports players have documented weight loss online from playing the games, Jill Wagner, an Ohio University physical education professor, is documenting the fitness benefits of exercise video games in an experimental course.
Instead of the Wii, which Wagner said is too expensive, she uses Dance Dance Revolution and the EyeToy: Kinetic game, which focuses on cardio and toning, for PlayStation 2. Both rely on the EyeToy camera, which is mounted on a TV set and registers the player's motions.
At the end of her five-week summer course, all 12 students decreased their resting heart rates and improved their mile times, Wagner said. About half of the class lost weight, and half improved their body fat percentage, she said.
This year Athens County elementary schools purchased copies of Dance Dance Revolution to supplement their physical education classes, Wagner said.
While interactive video games should not be used as a substitute for exercise or outdoor activity, they are good alternatives to sedentary video games that young people would play anyway, Wagner said.
You might as well makes them active while they're doing it
she said. Rockstar Games is using the exercise appeal to promote its table tennis game, and is touring 32 colleges and universities across the country, hosting The Freakishly Fit Campus Table Tennis Tournament to fight the fight against the freshman fifteen according to its Web site.
McClellan, 20, OU's tournament champ, said he does not work out regularly and will definitely be sore from the games, one of which included a rally of 100 passes.
I'm definitely tired after that McClellan said. I was sweating.
Chris Griswold, OU promoter for the tournament, said he plays Wii Sports games and thinks they qualify as alternative exercise, because players are required to simulate actual moves.
You feel it after a little while
Griswold said. You're exerting yourself.
Depending on the skill and intensity levels of the player, Rockstar Games' table tennis could be one of the most rigorous sports games, he said.
There is an emphasis on fitness with this game
he said.
17
Archives
Meghan McNamara
200710256011midsize.jpeg
